MB Civic

By David Broder | Sunday, November 18, 2007 | The Washington Post

“…That is revealing of the weakness of these debates as tools for helping voters decide which candidate to support. The TV impresarios are so eager for headlines they rarely pause to ask the candidates for evidence to support their opinions or assertions. It is bang-bang, but rarely because-and-here’s-proof.

On driver’s licenses, Richardson offered such proof, but in another case he did not. His “solution” to Iraq is to pull out all U.S. troops and contractors within a year and leave it to “an all-Muslim, all-Arab peacekeeping force, with some European forces, headed by the U.N.”

It’s a nice idea, but such a force exists only in Richardson’s imagination — and none is likely to materialize. But he is not called upon to explain.

There are similar, if not worse, examples on the Republican side. This kind of thing makes these preprimary debates seem an exercise in theatrical artificiality rather than substance….”…BS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/16/AR2007111601613_pf.html